Welcome to #EggAid

A charity campaign to reclaim the good reputation of eggs from Twitter trolls

Eggs have been getting a bit of a bad rap lately. They’ve become associated with the worst of the internet: anonymous trolls on Twitter making new accounts just to harass people.

Wait, what does that have to do with eggs?

The default avatar on Twitter is an egg. It’s meant to symbolise the birth of a new account, a shiny, unblemished handle ready to hatch.

Sadly, people who create new accounts just to troll often don’t bother changing the default avatar, and therefore harass people in large armies of eggs. And thus the humble egg has unexpectedly become the symbol of the Twitter abuser.

We want to change that.

Eggs haven’t actually done anything wrong. And they bring us loads of joy at this time of year. So we’ve decided to start an Easter campaign to rescue the reputation of the innocent egg, and raise some money for an eggcellent charity at the same time.

It’s easy to get involved – and you might even get some chocolate in the process. #winning

How you can help

All you have to do is choose an egg – there are various levels of fanciness – and click to donate the cost of that egg to Cybersmile, the cyberbullying charity (and part of Twitter’s new Trust & Safety Council).

You send them a virtual egg, and they put the cost towards helping the victims of Twitter eggs. It’s a beautiful ovoid of justice.

Are there any actual eggs to be had?

Oh yes! Our amazing friends Pat Testing Expert have donated a plethora of chocolatey prizes for you to enjoy. One lucky donor will win all this:

Everyone who makes a donation is in the prize draw to win a prize. HOW EGGCITING. You can see full details of the prizes here.

Ready to donate?

This guy doesn't want you to donate

Thanks for being a good egg. You’ll be supporting a charity that does amazing things helping people – especially kids and young people – deal with the real and long-lasting effects of online abuse and harassment. This is something we feel pretty strongly about (in fact, Editor Holly talked about trolling on BBC Breakfast just this week) and we want to set a good eggsample. You can find out more about Cybersmile and what they do here.

Mini-FAQs

It goes into our Paypal account until the end of the campaign (26th March), at which point it will all be donated directly to Cybersmile.

Why does it go to Gadgette first?

Two reasons:

1) So we know how much we’ve raised

2) So we have your email address to enter you in the competition.

Are you signing me up for marketing by donating to #EggAid?

No. We’re not signing you up for anything, but you will be automatically entered into the competition. If you’d like to sign up for our weekly newsletter, though, you can do that voluntarily here.

If you don’t want to be entered into the competition for any reason, put a note in the Paypal memo box.

Can I donate if I don’t have Paypal?

Unfortunately not. We’re a small team and can’t handle multiple payment methods. However, you can donate directly to Cybersmile on their website (you just won’t be entered into our competition).

When does the competition close?

Midnight on the 26th of March. You can still donate after that, but you won’t be entered into the competition. We’ll announce the winner on Monday 28th (Easter Monday), and the eggs will go out the following week. That means you’ll get them after Easter, but that’s not a bad thing – you’ll have eaten all your other eggs by then.